The senior brothers and sisters around them were all shrewd people. Every disciple fortunate enough to receive this opportunity was a favored student of some martial uncle or martial granduncle. No one was foolish enough to report the fight. Offending those disciples meant offending the masters standing behind them.
After waiting a little longer, a cultivator of average height arrived on a flying sword. Seeing that everyone was present, he tossed out a cloud boat.
Driven by his spell, the white cloud boat suddenly expanded. Wisps of auspicious white clouds gathered beneath it, gently lifting the vessel until it floated lightly in the air.
Flying magical artifacts of this kind were indispensable for long journeys, and all the disciples were familiar with them. They boarded the cloud boat one after another.
“Qilian, come here.” The male cultivator apparently knew Qilian Hongyun and called him over shortly after boarding.
“Martial Uncle Qixuan!” Qilian Hongyun greeted him with a grin as he approached.
Qixuan did not take offense. He seemed an easygoing man. He produced a transparent sphere of light and handed it to Qilian Hongyun. “Take this and channel spiritual power into it.”
“All right.” Qilian Hongyun obediently gripped the sphere and sent in his spiritual power.
The light inside gradually faded, revealing an azure pointer. It spun around several times before settling on a fixed direction.
Seeing this, Qixuan took control of the cloud boat and flew in the direction indicated.
“Xueyan, Sima Hui, you two come here as well.” After setting the cloud boat’s course, Qixuan called over the beautiful young woman and a tall, powerfully built man. He told them to take over when Qilian’s spiritual power began to run low.
The Realm-Seeking Sphere did not consume much spiritual power. Given that all three were at the late stage of Foundation Establishment, they would have no trouble maintaining it throughout the journey.
Martial Uncle Qixuan was very amiable. Aside from Qilian and his companions, the older senior brothers and sisters also seemed to know him well.
Only the newly admitted junior disciples were unfamiliar with him, so even after he introduced himself, they did not immediately crowd around.
Wei Qing and Le Hu had stopped fighting, but they continued to glare furiously at each other.
Seeing that these two fighting cocks had no intention of actually resuming their battle, Xu Ziyan left them alone.
They were boys, after all. Sometimes a few fights were all it took to establish a friendship. As the saying went, you could become friends through a fight.
Xiahou Lian remained with an attractive and refined senior sister on the other side of the boat. Most of the people around Xu Ziyan were male, and she was not on particularly good terms with Wei Qing.
Xu Zirong followed Xu Ziyan like a little tail. Now and then a senior brother or sister tried teasing the exquisitely handsome child, only to receive an icy stare in return…
(Senior brothers and sisters: Sob, sob! This little junior brother isn’t cute at all!)
The journey did not take very long.
Around seven days later, the light inside the Realm-Seeking Sphere held by the tall and sturdy Sima Hui began to flicker.
“We’re here.” Martial Uncle Qixuan raised a hand and stopped the cloud boat, looking down at the scenery.
Below them stretched a vast expanse of blue lake water. An island lay a short distance to the west.
Qixuan guided the cloud boat downward. Before they could land, clear laughter rang out. “May I ask which elder of the Flowing Light Sect has arrived? I am Qi Wanhui of the Nine Fragrance Pavilion. Greetings!”
“Perfected Qi of the Nine Fragrance Pavilion, I see. Qixuan offers his greetings,” Qixuan replied from a distance.
“Hehe, no need for such ceremony, Perfected Qixuan.” A beautiful woman wearing a gauzy yellow dress flew over on her sword and greeted Qixuan with a smile at the cloud boat’s bow.
The Nine Fragrance Pavilion was a medium-sized sect whose disciples were all women.
Though the sect was not particularly notable in any single respect, nobody dared underestimate it.
The reason was simple. Fair ladies were sought by gentlemen everywhere. The Nine Fragrance Pavilion’s disciples were young and beautiful, and many had married cultivators from other sects. Its fighting strength might not be exceptional, but those marriage connections ensured that numerous sects would come to its aid if trouble ever befell it.
Qixuan was very polite to Perfected Qi. After all, some cultivators of the Flowing Light Sect had also become Dao companions with women from the Nine Fragrance Pavilion. Within the Xuanyu Domain, practically every sect had established some marriage ties with it.
After exchanging pleasantries, Qixuan accepted Perfected Qi’s suggestion that they make camp together. In his view, cooperating inside the Azure Spirit Secret Realm might make the disciples safer.
Besides, the disciples he had brought were all elites of the Flowing Light Sect. Presumably the Nine Fragrance Pavilion had sent its elites as well. The senior members of both sects would naturally welcome a match between outstanding disciples from either side.
After all, once an elite disciple of the Nine Fragrance Pavilion married into the Flowing Light Sect, she would become an elite of the Flowing Light Sect instead.
While Perfected Qixuan and Perfected Qi chatted, the cloud boat descended onto the island.
Perfected Qi formed a spell seal. Several flashes of red light appeared and vanished in the air.
“We arrived first, so we put up a few simple safeguards,” she explained with a smile. “I’ll pass the control formula to you shortly. They aren’t particularly dangerous. Their main purpose is to alert the disciples guarding the formation if someone enters.”
Perfected Qixuan nodded. He would have done the same had he arrived first. One could never be too careful. If someone slipped onto the island and killed one or two disciples, they would have no face left to show the world.
Once the cloud boat landed, Qixuan put it away.
Perfected Qi led the group onward, and soon they arrived at a temporary camp.
Several tents had been erected there. A few charming young women were chatting animatedly.
“Master!” A girl in red at the front saw Perfected Qi returning and hurried over with the others.
“These are fellow Daoists from the Flowing Light Sect. In a couple of days, they will enter the Azure Spirit Secret Realm with you. Get to know one another first so you can look out for each other inside,” Perfected Qi instructed.
“Yes, Master,” the girl in red replied respectfully.
Perfected Qixuan gave the Flowing Light Sect disciples similar instructions, then accompanied Perfected Qi to find somewhere to discuss the Dao.
As the leaders of their respective groups, their only mission was to ensure the disciples’ safety. Socializing among the younger disciples was not their responsibility.
The leader of the girls in red was about sixteen or seventeen, and she greeted everyone with effortless poise. “Greetings, senior brothers of the Flowing Light Sect.” Then she looked toward Qilian Hongyun. “Senior Brother Qilian, it’s been a long time.”
Qilian Hongyun cupped his fists and smiled at her. They clearly knew one another well.
With the girl in red and Qilian Hongyun taking the lead, the two groups introduced themselves and exchanged greetings. The disciples quickly became acquainted.
Xu Ziyan did his best to conceal himself behind his senior brothers and sisters, keeping as low a profile as possible.
It was not that he had a strange fondness for hiding. He simply did not know whether one of the Nine Fragrance Pavilion’s disciples present would later become the infamous demoness.
Not long after Xu Ziyan and Bai Hua became involved in the story’s original course of events, a formidable demoness had appeared in the Xuanyu Domain. She was extremely powerful and specialized in the sinister art of harvesting yang to replenish yin. Every cultivator whose essence she drained was reduced to a desiccated corpse, stripped not only of cultivation but of the vitality of his very flesh and blood.
According to the stories, she had once been a disciple of the Nine Fragrance Pavilion and had discovered a forbidden cultivation method within the sect’s restricted grounds.
Using that method, she slaughtered countless cultivators and even attempted to target Bai Hua. At the time, Bai Hua had quarreled with the original Xu Ziyan and left to find Lin Xiaotian, only to be intercepted by the demoness along the way.
Perhaps Bai Hua’s protagonist’s halo had intervened. When the demoness attempted to drain his cultivation, her wicked technique suddenly malfunctioned. Instead of taking his power, she transferred all her own cultivation to him, allowing him to break through instantly from the late stage of Meridian Condensation to Golden Core.
Having lost her cultivation, the demoness was easily killed by Bai Hua. When the original Xu Ziyan failed to arrive in time, all he found was a shriveled corpse.
Recognizing someone from a dried-up corpse was difficult, to say the least. Xu Ziyan could not even be sure whether the woman had already begun practicing the forbidden art at this point in time.
He therefore decided to keep his distance from the Nine Fragrance Pavilion’s female disciples as much as possible. Better safe than sorry. That demoness had once set off a terrible reign of bloodshed. Who knew whether she was already seeking victims? ╮(╯_╰)╭ Several Flowing Light Sect senior brothers went to chat with the women. The senior sisters were less interested and chose a clean patch of ground where they could sit and cultivate.
Xu Ziyan looked around. The senior disciples all seemed occupied, leaving only the four of them standing there somewhat awkwardly.
Xu Ziyan had no intention of getting too close to the women, and Xu Zirong was secretly delighted by that decision. Naturally, he would never suggest otherwise.
Wei Qing and Le Hu were no longer on the brink of coming to blows as they had been two days earlier. Their battle had been reduced to furtive, murderous glances.
Perhaps they were too busy watching each other to take much notice of the women. After a moment’s thought, Xu Ziyan simply led them to an open space and suggested they put up their tents.
The tents issued by the Flowing Light Sect were magical artifacts of a sort. Simply inserting a low-grade spirit stone would cause one to erect itself.
Their interiors had been enchanted with a spatial technique resembling that of a storage bag. There was so much room inside that ten people could move about comfortably, with space to spare.
Each disciple had been issued a separate tent, but Xu Zirong had no intention of sleeping apart from his brother. He followed Xu Ziyan into his tent as though it were the most natural thing in the world.
As for Le Hu and Wei Qing, neither wanted to crowd into the Xu brothers’ tent. With mutual snorts, they erected their own tents on either side of Xu Ziyan’s.
They spent seven days waiting at the camp. During that time, several more sect delegations arrived. Some had brought as many disciples as the Flowing Light Sect, a dozen or more. Others had sent only a single disciple.